There are several types of ovens, which all present their own different individual advantages. In traditional stone ovens, such as e.g. pizza ovens, the bread is placed on a hot stone base. The hot stone heats the bread from below at the same time as the hot air inside the oven heats the upper surface of the bread. In conventional rack ovens the bread is instead placed on plates that are held by a rack, which is to be inserted into a so-called rack oven.
A major advantage of a rack oven is that the amount of manual involvement is minimised, because a large quantity of bread may be put in and out of the oven in one single operation. Further, it is energy saving with respect to a stone oven, because a lot of heat is lost as the oven door is continuously open and closed in a conventional stone oven.
There are however advantages of a conventional stone oven that are difficult to accomplish by a rack oven. For example some types of bread need to be heated from below in order to obtain the right richness or consistency.
BE 1 013 806 discloses a baking oven comprising heat preserving plates arranged at a distance, one above the other. A rack of baking plates, which are arranged at the same distance from each other, may then be inserted into the oven, such that each bread-carrying plate will be located above a heat preserving plate. The baking oven includes an arrangement for raising the heat preserving plates such that the distance between the heat preserving plates and the baking plates may be adjusted and such that contact may be made there between.
The arrangement in BE 1 013 806 does not provide the possibility of adapting the contact level in the breads and the heat preserving plates, because the breads are located on baking plates. Further, a problem with the arrangement in BE 1 013 806 is that it will be almost impossible to obtain a uniform heat in the oven.